Eastern governors protest Midwest wind transmission line

The governors of 11 eastern states have signed a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) protesting what they say is the implicit endorsement in the upcoming renewable energy bill of a multistate, high voltage transmission line from Iowa to the eastern seaboard.

The bill is to be debated by the Senate later this summer and centers around a proposal for a national renewable electricity standard that would mandate certain percentages of electricity come from alternative – most likely wind – sources of energy.

Iowa and other Great Plains states have for several years hoped and begun planning to export their surplus of wind energy to more populous states east of the Mississippi River. But in recent months eastern utility officials and political leaders have pushed back, saying they want to develop their own renewable energy.

Specifically, the easterners object to paying for the estimated $16 billion needed for a new 762-kilovolt transmission line that would extend from the Dakotas and Minnesota through Iowa to the east.

Iowa has a major stake in the debate because, with more than 3,300 megawatts of wind generation in place and another 1,000 appoved by state regulators, Iowa ranks second behind Texas in wind energy capacity.

The letter was written by Govs. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Donald L. Carcieri of Rhode Island. Carcieri is vice chairman, under chairman Chet Culver of Iowa, of the National Governors Association wind committee.

The letter sways the costs of the new transmission line “would be paid for by East Coast states, costing our ratepayers hundreds of dollars per year.”

It objects to giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the authority to plan such a transmission line, saying such action would “likely result in FERC imposing all transmission costs on ratepayers.”

The letter was also signed by the governors of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hapshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Virginia.

The easterners signaled their new aggressiveness about wind energy earlier this year by endorsing the approval of the controversial Cape Wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, which had been delayed for years by opposition by groups ranging from Indian tribes to now-deceased luminaries such as Senator Ted Kennedy and TV anchor Walter Cronkite.

Both MidAmerican Energy Des Moines and ITC Holdings of Michigan, which owns the transmission system used by Alliant Energy, are involved in planning for a long-distance transmission line.